China’s latest round of debt forgiveness, which will see it cancel interest-free loans to 17 African countries, will cover a tiny portion of its lending to the continent, according to a report from Boston University Global Development Policy Center.
Africa’s largest bilateral creditor announced the waivers at a meeting in August of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation. It didn’t provide details on the value of the 23 interest-free loans that it said had matured at the end of 2021, nor did it state which nations owed the money. The centre estimates the latest relief would amount to between $45m and $610m, or about 1% of what the continent owes China. It was difficult to determine an exact amount because of a lack of public information, it said.
Since 2000, Beijing has announced multiple rounds of debt forgiveness of interest-free loans to African countries, cancelling at least $3.4bn of debt through 2019, according to another study published by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
China accounts for almost 40% of the bilateral and private-creditor debt that the world’s poorest countries need to service this year, World Bank data show.